IPGMER first govt hosp in E India to launch robotic op
Times of India | 13 March 2025
123 Kolkata: Robotic surgery is set to debut at IPGMER, making it the first govt hospital in eastern India to bring in this technology to boost healthcare.
The facility will be installed at Rs 6.4 crore, an amount already sanctioned by the state health department. The state's biggest referral hospital is expected to get the machine installed and commissioned by the end of May.
An official at IPGMER said the robotic surgical system, with the latest technology built into it, was equipped with the original technology from the UK and was programmed to perform various surgeries. The hospital plans to start deploying this technology for surgical procedures in fields, like general surgery, urology and gynaecology before it expands the spectrum.
"This robotic system can be used for multi-disciplinary surgical procedures. We plan to initially restrict the procedure to three or four areas, such as general surgery, urology and gynaecology, before we gradually extend it to other disciplines, like head and neck and cardiac surgeries," said general surgery professor at IPGMER Diptendra Sarkar, also the convenor of the technical committee of the project.
"So far, this technology is restricted to only a small group of niche and high-income groups. Thanks to our CM's visionary move, the advantage of robotic surgery technology will now be open to patients from lower- and middle-income groups," added Sarkar.
Some doctors at the hospitals have already undergone sensitisation and attended workshops on robotic surgery. Once the equipment and the accessories are installed, a certain number of doctors, nurses and technicians will undergo multiple rounds of training in this specific technology before the actual procedures begin.
According to officials of the state's biggest tertiary-care hospital, the first proposal for robotic surgery dates back to 2016, when a proposal was mooted for the technology in urology operations. But since it was an expensive system, the hospital wanted it to cover other disciplines to make it cost-effective and accessible to a large patient pool, said an official. The proposal for it was again mooted in 2019 when chief minister Mamata Banerjee accepted it. Sources said CM Banerjee wrote to the health department, asking the officials to install the system at IPGMER.
Even as the ground was being prepared, including civic work, Covid struck. As a result, all the focus, including that of funds, was invested in fighting the pandemic, said the official. Back then, only a few institutes, like AIIMS Delhi and PGI Chandigarh, had introduced robotic surgery.
The technical committee will be meeting the principal health secretary and other health officials on Tuesday to prepare an SOP for the implementation of the project. "This initiative, with support from the chief minister, is a dream project, which will benefit a large number of patients, especially those with surgical sites, which are difficult to access manually," said Pijush Kanti Roy, MSVP, IPGMER.
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